My first encounter was when Cat Garza introduced me to the haunting "Svefn-G-Englar" which has the most enormous, cavernous sound space imaginable. When I'm in a really dark mood I'll put that on along with Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" and Drake's "River Man".

...Anyone casually aquainted with me probably knows that I'm the biggest Marshall Crenshaw drooler in the whole damn universe, but... you should all trust me and buy his What's In The Bag CD anyway, because in my utterly unbiased opinion, it's a lovely thing.

At the total other end of the spectrum, there's always the nifty Canadian trio, the Orchid Ensemble. On Heartland, they play traditional Chinese string instruments together with the marimba, of all things. It works. Mostly traditional folk songs, very graceful and pensive but not mind-numbing in that EZ listening way._________________"...It's like my birthday every day
'Cause Mr. Monk is such a ray of wisdom and light
You know he dried all the fears from my eyes
And in time
All time
Will be time..."

You need to add Bowie to your list. If all you're familiar with is his greatest hits type stuff (Let's Dance, Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, etc.), and you're into Eno and Philip Glass, you should seek out Bowie's album "Low" (an Eno collaboration, later adapted by Glass) and a lesser-known, more recent CD called "The Buddah of Suburbia."

(Too tired to add Amazon links, but we're on the 'net already, so it shouldn't be too hard...)_________________Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.

Scott, you have not listened to enough Dave Matthews Band. I know Stephanie made you that CD, but there's a lot of other incredibly swifty stuph that Dave has done that is not mainstream. And you gotta love Boyd Tinsley on the electric violin. I demand it.

Scott, you have not listened to enough Dave Matthews Band. I know Stephanie made you that CD, but there's a lot of other incredibly swifty stuph that Dave has done that is not mainstream. And you gotta love Boyd Tinsley on the electric violin. I demand it.

Feeeeed me, Seymour.

In fact, if you give me some Friday, I've got a really long plane ride (and 2 laptop batteries) for sampling purposes.

Meanwhile, I would like to thank DecafSilicon for including Tom Lehrer and Propellerheads on the same list. Verily, there is hope for humanity.

I ought to buy a whole CD of his...I love everything Dr. Demento's played by Lehrer. "The Elements," "Masochism Tango," and "Poisoning the Pigeons."

Oh man, now I've got a whole bunch of Lehrer songs stuck in my head, and I'm going to have to start singing them out loud to get them out. Who deserves the credit? Who deserves the blame, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii is his name...

I love everything Clutch has ever done. I have never heard a Clutch song I didn't like. Ever. They're the only band I can say this about. Even when they're at their most ridiculously hillbilly or nonsensical, they bring the rock... and you won't find too many funk bands secure enough to sing about their AD&D characters, or their grade school's Gifted and Talented program.

Also:

Mary Prankster - Hilarious. I've heard her described as "cowpunk." Whatever that is.

Pain - I have a weak spot for soft punk with high-pictched vocals.

Sixteen Horsepower - Newly discovered, but already a fav.

Social Distortion - GRRRR DYSFUNCTIONAL GRRRR.

Bjork - Well... obviously.

Foetus - The guy goes under a million different names, but he's always so damn weird I can't help myself.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Emo before it was cool. *ducks*

Big Mama Thornton - Naturally. Her version of "Hound Dog" not only makes a helluva lot more sense than Elvis's, but it's just better sung.

Spike wrote:
Big Mama Thornton - Naturally. Her version of "Hound Dog" not only makes a helluva lot more sense than Elvis's, but it's just better sung.

Thanks to the ITunes music store, I can enthusiastically agree on both counts. Just last night, oddly enough, I was engaged in one of those "what-the-fuck-is-he-saying??" conversations, specifically about Elvis' "Hound Dog".

Elvis: "You ain't nothing but a hound dog. ______ all the time."
I defy anyone to fill in the blank!

Incidentally, since I started this topic, friends have been coming to my rescue with recommendations and plastic and I've been catching up on Bjork, Outkast, Ween (12 Golden Golden Country Greats!), Peaches (Porn punk! featured briefly in Lost in Translation), Cake and many others. Thank you Lori, Sally, Jenn, John J., Lauren, Stephanie, Marcus, Amy, Nat, etc, etc, etc...

Spike, you ain't never caught no rabbit, and you ain't friend of mine.(cue drums)

He who defames the King must be punished. Off with his head!!

I spent a few years, back when I was that other dimension, as an Elvis impersonator. I was the only Elvis in Elvis City wearing a big gold Chai around his neck. I was singing "Rubbernecking" long before it got re-mixed._________________"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)

The whole CD will be played in it's entirety. As a fan of the original Let It Be (I still only have it on old scratchy vynil), I looking foward to this with some trepidation. I hope they didn't screw it up too badly.

Check your local listing for time and station. Here in New York, it's on WCBeatleS-FM (101.1), 9-11pm._________________"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)

On the subject of guitar solos... well I'm not sure if they are exactly solos, but in just about every Ween song there is a Big Guitar Section. I have seen them live a few times and in every song there is a point where... Gene? The guitarist just goes off on a big guitar rampage. And so when I'm listening to the albums I'm always thinking "Ah it would be at this point in the live show that he would go off guitar-ing..."

Let's see what have I been listening to at work today?

I haven't bought anything new for a while as I've been on the broke side, but my brother recently copied the Velvet Underground album (self titled I guess) with I'm Beginning to See the Light and It's the Story of My Life on it. So I've been listening to that a lot. Nice album.